Thoughts and prayers

everyone did what was right in his own eyes

2011-04-06T08:00:00.000-04:00

In high school I took a class called "Manifest Destiny". Our teacher taught us in that class that the pioneers compared crossing the Mississippi river with the children of Israel crossing the Jordan. It may have been a more accurate comparison than they meant. This reading could have come from today's headlines. I've read ahead and things do not turn out well. Eventually Israel is taken into captivity.

King Solomon's Chain of command

2010-05-31T02:31:00.014-04:00

Sometimes I loose track of who is who and what is what. I thought an org chart might help here.

Wineskin in the smoke

2010-05-30T11:50:00.000-04:00

I didn't know what on earth the Psalmist meant by wineskin in the smoke meant. Apparently he meant that he was shriveled up, dried out, blackened, and useless. Sounds pretty bad to me. Still he's not forgetting God's word.

Out of the mouths of babes

2010-05-12T08:13:00.001-04:00

Follow up polygamy

2010-05-07T09:03:00.000-04:00

I was not satisfied with my earlier post on this subject. I wanted a clear Bible passage that said "you shall have only one wife". I couldn't find it. According to this Martin Luther (yes that Martin Luther) couldn't find something clear on it either. This made me feel much better about not finding it. I did find that some Christians believe that the people recorded in the old testament were sinning. I also found a news group where someone asked what to do about new Christians who already had multiple wives.

Also I was surprised to find out that there are modern Christians living this way. I don't know why this surprised me since you can find anything on the internet, but it did. This made me want to find it even more because frankly I don't want to be associated with what I saw on some of those web sites.

Before we move forward let's clear up the good names of those people in the old testament. The only thing that I can find that suggests that polygamy is a sin is in the new testament. In the old testament polygamy was required sometimes because of Deuteronomy 25:5-6. There are other verses in the old testament that deal with polygamous marriages, and I have seen reasonable arguments that say that God was regulating a practice that was already bad. This is a different story. The person required to engage in polygamy was required to do so because of circumstances beyond his control. To say that God's law requires someone to sin seems blasphemous to me.

In the new testament he closest I can find on this subject is :
Matthew 19:9 (New American Standard Bible)

9"And I say to you, whoever divorces his wife, except for immorality, and marries another woman commits adultery."

Some people say that this is saying that if you divorce your faithful wife it's not a valid divorce. The reasoning here is that the second marriage would be fine if polygamy was legit. Then it would follow that Jesus is saying that both divorce and polygamy are wrong. He would also be removing the obligations of Deuteronomy 25:5-6 if the man is already married. Jesus can certainly do this, but I would like to point out that His purpose here seems to be to limit divorce. Using this to trigger a divorce for a new Christian seems to go against that purpose. Still, when I found this I thought I had at least found something that I could use. Then I asked a question.

My question then was "Why didn't Martin Luther see this?" I saw a post where someone said that he was under political pressure to do so, but this doesn't make sense. He pretty much lived under political pressure. I figured that maybe there was something that I didn't see. Since he translated the Bible into German before the King James translation I figured maybe the original text was not so clear. I don't speak Greek, but I am conversant in browser so see for yourself. As far as I can tell the words "and marries" above might also be translated "so to marry" which might imply that Jesus is saying that you can't trade your wife in on a new model unless she is being unfaithful. The difference being that if you can't support a new wife you can't get rid of an old one to make room. This seems to be more in line with the context of the passage.

So there you have it. As I stated before I couldn't find a clear biblical statement that outlaws polygamy, but before anyone goes off and tries this here is what I think. The Bible does say that the two become one flesh. I think that the one flesh idea goes beyond the physical. I think it speaks to an emotional oneness. That said you can't have two becoming one flesh followed by one and a half becoming one flesh. Husband and wife would have to agree on this totally. In biblical times adding someone to the family lightened the load on the wife. and thus might have been welcomed. In modern times I don't know how a man would bring it up without hurting his wifes feelings, and that's just bringing it up not the actual living it out. I think that this would rule out most if not all of this.

In short it might be theoretically "OK", but in practice not so much.

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Dancing

2010-05-05T21:07:00.000-04:00

I knew it was in the Bible somewhere. Yesterday's reading proves that men shouldn't dance.

¹⁶Then it happened as the ark of the LORD came into the city of David that ^(AL)Michal the daughter of Saul looked out of the window and saw King David leaping and dancing before the LORD; and she despised him in her heart.

Money medical expenses tithe

2010-05-03T14:01:00.000-04:00

A few weeks ago I decided to start spending our tithe on medical expenses. I based this decision on the fact that in the old testament if you got sick you went to the priests, and Jesus healed people during his ministry. Therefore, the medical profession must be a Christian ministry. I wasn't able to stop the check that I had scheduled to go out from going. This is the first check that didn't go out. Today I found out that I'm probably getting a pay cut. I sent the tithe.

Pray for us as we go through this trying time.

Psalms now?

2010-04-28T21:44:00.000-04:00

Today we read this.

Yesterday we I read an account of Levitical lineage. This reading seems out of place in a chronological reading plan. Looks like this should be in between some of the time when David was on the run from Saul.

Maybe it's put here just to give folks a break from trying to pronounce so many strange names in a row.

How it's going

2010-04-27T22:03:00.000-04:00

Every morning I have been getting up and making tea for my wife. Then I make coffee for myself. I might have worked out by the time I do this. After she gets up we make breakfast. We recently got a cast iron griddle so our current favorite is pancakes. Then we read the Bible on our cell phones, out loud. Today we read this. Well we take turns at each section. So today I read it all. Ok, not exactly all of it. I skipped a few "name I can't pronounce son of other name I can't pronounce" parts.

One of the names I could pronounce was Bukki. My son, Noah, thought this was really funny. I told him that we got his name from the Bible, and maybe we should have picked this one instead. He thought that was really funny.

So it's going well. I still haven't gotten a schedule for this blog.

Shelli

2010-04-27T20:41:00.000-04:00

I'm continuing to pray for Shelli. Earlier this year she was doing well. Then she got a tooth problem that required dental surgery. It took a long time for her to get in to see the surgeon. During this time she had to be on antibiotics. She just got off the antibiotics and now her stomach is bothering her. We think it's a stomach bug, but it could be the antibiotics. It's been one thing after the other for a while now and I think she's getting frustrated. I know I am.

Of concubines and craig's tablet

2010-04-25T13:11:00.000-04:00

We are still reading everyday. Here is what we read today.
During our reading my wife posed a question that I have been wondering about. She said
"I wonder where the Biblical prohibition against multiple wives is?"

"I know that there is something about deacons being the husband of one wife and that Jesus said something about marriage not being that way in the beginning. " I replied.

"I think they were still under the command to be fruitful and multiply." she said.

"Maybe this not being a sin at this time has something to do with the amount of work that they had to do at that time just to stay alive. You have a washing machine and they had to haul their laundry to the stream.

Also, what exactly does this concubine job include? And how do you get one? Did they have craigslist? Maybe craigstablet?

How would you feel about it if I had a concubine?" We've been married long enough that I can playfully ask that question. You can tell by her answer.

She laughed and said "That depends on how well she can keep house."

I did want a better answer so I looked it up. According to Wiki a concubine in the Bible is a wife that does not come with a dowry. Also according to the Wikipedia there are no explicit commandments regarding monogamy in the new testament. So far there haven't been any in the old testament either. The only things more that they have to say is what other people have said about it. To me this seems like adding to the Bible. I think that the fact that God created one man and one woman might say something, but within a generation or two we see the multiple wives. Also, David was a man after God's own heart, and he had concubines.

Now, don't go looking for my posting on Craigslist. Our wedding vows included the phrase "forsaking all others". I wonder what their vows had. "Forsaking most others" or "forsaking some others". Maybe the whole "forsaking" clause was left out altogether. Let's see (I copied this from here) what that would leave.

""Will you, _______, have _____ to be your wife/husband? Will you love her/him, comfort and keep her/him, and remain true to him/her as long as you both shall live?" ("I will")

(Repeat) "I, ________, take thee ______, to be my wife/husband, and before God and these witnesses I promise to be a faithful and true wife/husband."

(Rings) "With this ring I thee wed, and all my worldly goods I thee endow. In sickness and in health, in poverty or in wealth, 'til death do us part."

If this accurately reflects your wedding vows be advised that I am not responsible for your posting on craigslist or the resulting divorce.

Easter

2010-04-04T22:16:00.000-04:00

First of all, sorry about not posting anything in February or March. I really meant to post over those months, but I got busy doing other things. In my defense I have drafts from those months that just didn't get posted.

The good thing is that we are still reading. Sometimes we have had to postpone our reading time to evening, but we have still been reading. I like the Chronological reading, but I'm really looking forward to getting to the new testament for obvious reasons.

Today is an example. We are celebrated God doing something that I would never do. He sent His Son to die on the cross for us. No offense, but I wouldn't send my son to die for any or all of you. Yet today's reading was about Samson. Samson is pretty cool and all, but he just doesn't compare.

Anyway, I'm going to try to set aside a time to blog every day. I don't know when it will be just yet, but I'll work on it.

Everything good starts with prayer (Praying for my family's health)

2010-01-29T09:59:00.000-05:00

My prayer this morning:

"Lord,

The best thing that we have done this year is to read your word. Please help this to not become stale. I don't want this to become rote and empty. Pleas help us to continue this practice of reading your word at breakfast every day for the rest of our lives.

Also, please give us the fortitude to continue exercising. This has helped my wife, and it has helped me. I know it may or may not help in weight loss. You were there when I was reading the article the other day. My wife and I have been feeling better from this, and I ask that this continue.

My wife is sick right now. Of course, You know this. I ask that You heal her. I know that this is something that You can do. I've seen You do it in the past. I know that You could heal her in the blink of an eye so that she doesn't feel well one second and the next she hardly remembers feeling bad. In fact I ask that You bless this family with health such that we no longer get sick. I ask that for the rest of our lives that we only go to the doctor to verify that we are indeed still well, and that we go to the grave in full vigor.

I don't deserve this. I didn't deserve the breath I drew to speak these words. It is only by your grace that I live at all. I only ask because, well, You said to. I ask this in Your name and I intend to give you the glory. Help me, Lord, to record this prayer in my blog so that when people ask "Why are you and your wife and son never sick?" or "How are you guys keeping well?" I can point them to the blog and they can see that it is Your hand doing these things."